Developmental theories suggest affect-biased attention, preferential attention to emotionally salient stimuli, emerges during infancy through coordinating individual differences. Here we examined bidirectional relations between infant affect-biased attention, temperamental negative affect, and maternal anxiety symptoms using a Random Intercepts…

This study assessed a preventive intervention home visiting programme (Fussy Baby Network (FBN)) designed to support mothers struggling with infant crying, sleeping, or feeding concerns. Mothers were referred to the programme through local health- and social service providers and were eligible to participate in the study if they were age 18 or…

The study of infants' interactive style and social stress response to repeated stress exposures is of great interest for developmental and clinical psychologists. Stable maternal and dyadic behavior is critical to sustain infants' development of an adaptive social stress response, but the association between infants' interactive style and social…

This study assessed the links between infant negative affect, parental reflective functioning (RF), and toddler behavior problems in a sample of 84 women and their infants. Mothers provided self-report demographic data and completed the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised during a home visit when the infant was 7 months old. They also completed…

Emotion regulation is essential to cognitive, social, and emotional development and difficulties with emotion regulation portend future socioemotional, academic, and behavioral difficulties. There is growing awareness that many developmental outcomes previously thought to begin their development in the postnatal period have their origins in the…

Introduction: This article examines regulatory behaviors and physiological stress reactivity among 6-15 month-old infants with moderate to heavy prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE), a group at very high risk for fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and self-regulation impairments, compared to low risk infants with no/low exposure. Participants: Eighteen…

Despite implications that stranger fear is an important aspect of developing behavioral inhibition, a known risk factor for anxiety, normative and atypical developmental trajectories of stranger fear across infancy and toddlerhood remain understudied. We used a large, longitudinal data set (N = 1285) including multi-trait, multi-method assessments…

Objective: Maternal antenatal anxiety is associated with an increased risk of behavioral disturbances in offspring. Recent work has suggested that the effect of maternal antenatal anxiety on infant temperament at 6 months is moderated by the serotonin transporter polymorphism 5-HTTLPR, with carriers of the short allele more susceptible to the…

A behaviorally inhibited temperament in early childhood has been identified as a potential risk factor for anxiety disorders in children and adolescents. The purpose of our investigation was the development and evaluation of the factor structure, reliability and validity of the first retrospective parent report measure to assess behavioral…

This experiment investigated social referencing as a form of discriminative learning in which maternal facial expressions signaled the consequences of the infant's behavior in an ambiguous context. Eleven 4- and 5-month-old infants and their mothers participated in a discrimination-training procedure using an ABAB design. Different consequences…

Background: Maternal eating disorders (ED) have been shown to increase the risk of feeding difficulties in the offspring. Very few studies, however, have investigated whether the effect of a maternal ED on childhood feeding is a direct effect or whether it can be ascribed to other child or maternal factors. We aimed to determine the role of…

Social experiences and stranger anxiety of infants of working mothers were compared with those of infants of nonworking mothers. Mothers' employment status, and sex and age of infants, were analyzed in relation to anxiety. Maternal work status was not found to be a significant parameter in infant reactions to a stranger except when physical…

This study, involving 15 nonparental female clients, found that the perceived anxiety and arousal elicited by infant crying were significantly diminished after stress management training. Anxiety measures were strongly correlated with both perceived arousal and the clients' evaluation of infant crying. (Author/JDD)

Parents completed the Infant Characteristics Questionnaire (ICQ), and their depression and anxiety were measured, during pregnancy and the postpartum period. The ICQ scores formed two components in the mothers' analysis, and one in the fathers'analysis. Predictors of postpartum ICQ scores were the postpartum ICQ components and the anxiety and…

The effects of maternal antenatal and postnatal anxiety and depression on infant negative behavioral reactivity were examined in a sample of 22 mother-infant pairs. Maternal anxiety and depression were assessed by standardized measures during the third trimester of pregnancy and postpartum. Infant negative behavioral responses to novelty were…